1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatuses for feeding and dividing into fixed quantities, various kinds of articles, particularly agricultural and marine products which are of indeterminate form and have been, hitherto, difficult to feed in fixed quantities, for example bean sprouts or various kinds of cut or sliced vegetables, and various kinds of food articles, for example spaghetti, noddle and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, various kinds of agricultural and marine products or food articles have been treated in such a manner that they are packed in a number of fixed quantities, and it has been, therefore, desirable to provide an apparatus for fixed quantity feeding, which is simple in construction.
An apparatus which has been hitherto used for these purposes, is of the type in which articles to be fed in fixed quantity are thrown into a vertically upstanding fixed chute, while the level of the articles in the fixed chute is controlled by a photoelectric tube or the like so as to be almost constant, and are subsequently divided into predetermined lengths at the bottom end of the fixed chute.
In such feed apparatus, however, articles falling through the fixed chute, for example bean sprouts or cut vegetables, are twisted or partially clogged so that their feeding density is not constant. Although the flow of the articles getting out of the fixed chute is divided according to a given length, it is difficult to obtain a fixed quantity of them and the weights of the articles packed after being divided are thus not consistent.